shirl
05-05-2008, 01:59 PM
Anyone know of cheap airline tickets for Charlotte
North Carolina?
North Carolina?
View Full Version : cheap airline tickets
Homavati
05-06-2008, 09:45 PM
Or Albuquerue, NM?
Thanks!
Anyone know of cheap airline tickets for Charlotte
North Carolina?
Thanks!
Anyone know of cheap airline tickets for Charlotte
North Carolina?
Malene
05-07-2008, 09:12 AM
It is harder to get discounts on domestic flights than on International flights, because the FAA controls the price structures.
Here is my "decision tree" when I look for domestic discounted airfare. I am not going to spend the two hours it takes me to check it all for you, but you should be able to follow my instructions step by step.
First I go to www.itasoftware.com (https://www.itasoftware.com) to search on my date(s) and route. This gives me a good ball park figure on what are the current best prices. Remember to search alternate airports like SFO, OAK and SMF (Sacramento).
After that I go to orbitz.com. They just seem to have more bulk priced tickets than the other large engines. Occassionally - but not too often - orbitz can beat the price slightly of what itasoftware shows me.
Then I check airfarewatchdog.com. That is where if I am lucky I really find a good rate. If they show me something I go after it with all that I have, but it is not always those excellent rates are available when I need them. *sigh*.
I also check if the low cost carriers have discounts - although airfarewatchdog should have shown me already if they do.
THose are the carriers like jetblue and southwest.
Finally - if I am going to a location where some of the charter companies have hubs I check prices with the charter companies. I dont know if CHarlotte is such a destination.
Charter companies include companies like apple vacations and others that sell packages. They often have discounted airfare.
Finally - I might not have found any significant discounts after having spend a couple hours on above tricks. So then I call the company that orbitz or itasoftware lists as the cheapest directly and see how cheap they can get me there.
Remember - if you have a hardship reason to travel like death or illness in the family many of the large airlines will give you a bigger discount. Just let the booking agent know whats going on. Be prepared to prove the death or illness you refer to though.
Finally - lets say you go to one search engine and find a cheap ticket, but you dont buy right then and there. When you return in 30 minutes that cheap ticket is gone. This happens all the time. Two things are going on here. 1. The airlines absolutely do adjust their rates all the time. The rate might have gone up in the 30 minutes. 2. Much more likely - these engines use cookies to check what you have searched on, and what the rate was you were given. If they see you search too much on a specific route they raise the price because they figure you really want the ticket and they want to instill some urgency.
If this happens empty out your computer cookies, or go do the search from a different computer. Most often you get the original good price back.
Malene
Anyone know of cheap airline tickets for Charlotte
North Carolina?
Here is my "decision tree" when I look for domestic discounted airfare. I am not going to spend the two hours it takes me to check it all for you, but you should be able to follow my instructions step by step.
First I go to www.itasoftware.com (https://www.itasoftware.com) to search on my date(s) and route. This gives me a good ball park figure on what are the current best prices. Remember to search alternate airports like SFO, OAK and SMF (Sacramento).
After that I go to orbitz.com. They just seem to have more bulk priced tickets than the other large engines. Occassionally - but not too often - orbitz can beat the price slightly of what itasoftware shows me.
Then I check airfarewatchdog.com. That is where if I am lucky I really find a good rate. If they show me something I go after it with all that I have, but it is not always those excellent rates are available when I need them. *sigh*.
I also check if the low cost carriers have discounts - although airfarewatchdog should have shown me already if they do.
THose are the carriers like jetblue and southwest.
Finally - if I am going to a location where some of the charter companies have hubs I check prices with the charter companies. I dont know if CHarlotte is such a destination.
Charter companies include companies like apple vacations and others that sell packages. They often have discounted airfare.
Finally - I might not have found any significant discounts after having spend a couple hours on above tricks. So then I call the company that orbitz or itasoftware lists as the cheapest directly and see how cheap they can get me there.
Remember - if you have a hardship reason to travel like death or illness in the family many of the large airlines will give you a bigger discount. Just let the booking agent know whats going on. Be prepared to prove the death or illness you refer to though.
Finally - lets say you go to one search engine and find a cheap ticket, but you dont buy right then and there. When you return in 30 minutes that cheap ticket is gone. This happens all the time. Two things are going on here. 1. The airlines absolutely do adjust their rates all the time. The rate might have gone up in the 30 minutes. 2. Much more likely - these engines use cookies to check what you have searched on, and what the rate was you were given. If they see you search too much on a specific route they raise the price because they figure you really want the ticket and they want to instill some urgency.
If this happens empty out your computer cookies, or go do the search from a different computer. Most often you get the original good price back.
Malene
Anyone know of cheap airline tickets for Charlotte
North Carolina?
Barry
05-07-2008, 11:33 AM
In addition to Malene's excellent suggestions, I'd suggest Priceline.com, where you can make an offer for seats. It works best if you can have flexibility on the dates your travel and can leave on short notice. I haven't ended up taking a flight from them but is sure seems like a good idea!
Malene
05-07-2008, 12:02 PM
So, here is the deal with priceline.
Their basic idea is that if a flight is not filled up (or hotel, or restaurant, or what have you) then the powers that be are willing to sell at a discount last minute.
I have not yet seen it work with flights though. It works quite often with hotels, but not so much with flights. Maybe i havent checked them enough, but in the past when I checked they start out saying that yes - your price is available, and when you start to click through to purchase then it isnt.
Getting airfare's is very automated, and at the same time flexible. The airlines set those fares all the time and put them out on published search engines for us to find.
Priceline has access to the same search engines. You will get roughly the same price as travelocity, expedia & orbitz with this engine.
All of above mentioned companies - including priceline buys bulk tickets in addition to the published fares. Bulk tickets are sometimes - not always - cheaper than published rates. For International flights bulk tickets can really rake in the savings. I recently saved my husband and I each $400 on flights to South Africa with bulk tickets. Finding a strong supply of bulk tickets is an art. I am quite good at it though - having spend the hours and some $$ to research different companies. It took me about 3 hours to find those tickets - so gotta dig in and use some elbow grease!
Nationally - not so much. All the large search engines will occassionally have bulk rates for something so its worth checking them out, but it will not be huge savings.
Usually airfarewatchdog will know when / if there are bulk savings somewhere. Which makes them an especially good one stop to check rates.
Priceline buy bulk tickets as well - so in that aspect they are teh same as the large engines.
Bottom line is if there are discounts to be had then airfarewatchdog & itasoftware will usually show them.
Those two should - but doesnt always - include prices from low cost carriers making those an additional worthy stop.
The two above mentioned search options will not include rates from charter companies making that a worthy stop if you are in the area with charter company hubs.
Malene
In addition to Malene's excellent suggestions, I'd suggest Priceline.com, where you can make an offer for seats. It works best if you can have flexibility on the dates your travel and can leave on short notice. I haven't ended up taking a flight from them but is sure seems like a good idea!
Their basic idea is that if a flight is not filled up (or hotel, or restaurant, or what have you) then the powers that be are willing to sell at a discount last minute.
I have not yet seen it work with flights though. It works quite often with hotels, but not so much with flights. Maybe i havent checked them enough, but in the past when I checked they start out saying that yes - your price is available, and when you start to click through to purchase then it isnt.
Getting airfare's is very automated, and at the same time flexible. The airlines set those fares all the time and put them out on published search engines for us to find.
Priceline has access to the same search engines. You will get roughly the same price as travelocity, expedia & orbitz with this engine.
All of above mentioned companies - including priceline buys bulk tickets in addition to the published fares. Bulk tickets are sometimes - not always - cheaper than published rates. For International flights bulk tickets can really rake in the savings. I recently saved my husband and I each $400 on flights to South Africa with bulk tickets. Finding a strong supply of bulk tickets is an art. I am quite good at it though - having spend the hours and some $$ to research different companies. It took me about 3 hours to find those tickets - so gotta dig in and use some elbow grease!
Nationally - not so much. All the large search engines will occassionally have bulk rates for something so its worth checking them out, but it will not be huge savings.
Usually airfarewatchdog will know when / if there are bulk savings somewhere. Which makes them an especially good one stop to check rates.
Priceline buy bulk tickets as well - so in that aspect they are teh same as the large engines.
Bottom line is if there are discounts to be had then airfarewatchdog & itasoftware will usually show them.
Those two should - but doesnt always - include prices from low cost carriers making those an additional worthy stop.
The two above mentioned search options will not include rates from charter companies making that a worthy stop if you are in the area with charter company hubs.
Malene
In addition to Malene's excellent suggestions, I'd suggest Priceline.com, where you can make an offer for seats. It works best if you can have flexibility on the dates your travel and can leave on short notice. I haven't ended up taking a flight from them but is sure seems like a good idea!
Malene
05-07-2008, 12:24 PM
airfarewatchdog tells me that southwest currently have discounts on flights to albuquerque, with travel on Tuesdays & Wednesdays. They say $188 round trip, not including taxes.
Finding days when the fare is actually available will probably be the challenge.
Go to travelocity or southwest.com.
Itasoftware says same flight available for $221 round trip - not includes taxes and fees. Again, specific dates will have to be checked.
Airfarewatchdog show no discounts to Charlotte - making it likely there arent much to be had there. I checked SFO, OAK, SMF, SJC as departure airports.
Orbitz & itasoftware both show rates around $280 before taxes & fee's. Orbitz shows $180, but they will put in a $10 booking fee. Itasoftware shows $187.
Might be able to fiddle with dates and get it up and down a bit, but I would stake my reputation as the one who can find the airfare rates on saying that the price wont come down a whole lot from that. Unless there is a hardship card to play. Remember that travel on Tuesdays & Wednesdays are generally the cheaper days.
Malene
(who is spending way too much time today doing nuttin)
Finding days when the fare is actually available will probably be the challenge.
Go to travelocity or southwest.com.
Itasoftware says same flight available for $221 round trip - not includes taxes and fees. Again, specific dates will have to be checked.
Airfarewatchdog show no discounts to Charlotte - making it likely there arent much to be had there. I checked SFO, OAK, SMF, SJC as departure airports.
Orbitz & itasoftware both show rates around $280 before taxes & fee's. Orbitz shows $180, but they will put in a $10 booking fee. Itasoftware shows $187.
Might be able to fiddle with dates and get it up and down a bit, but I would stake my reputation as the one who can find the airfare rates on saying that the price wont come down a whole lot from that. Unless there is a hardship card to play. Remember that travel on Tuesdays & Wednesdays are generally the cheaper days.
Malene
(who is spending way too much time today doing nuttin)